Gomoku
Five in a row on a 15×15 grid. The purest of the three, and the sharpest.
15×15 · five in a row · play a person instead
How to play Gomoku
- Black plays first. Players alternate placing one stone on any empty intersection.
- Five of your stones in an unbroken row — horizontally, vertically or diagonally — wins.
- Under standard rules a line of six or more does not win: it has to be exactly five.
- Under freestyle rules, six or more counts as a win. Both are available here.
Played across East Asia for centuries — gomoku in Japan, omok in Korea, wuziqi in China — on a Go board with Go stones. Its problem is famous: unrestricted, the first player wins, which is why competitive versions add opening rules and why Connect6 was invented.
How to get better
Open threes are the language
A row of three with both ends empty threatens two different fours. Make them, and answer your opponent's.
Count the broken shapes
Stone, stone, gap, stone is one move from four in a row. It looks like a three and plays like one.
Attack while you defend
The strongest block is a stone that also builds your own line. Purely defensive stones hand over the initiative and you rarely get it back.
Beware the overline
Under standard rules, being forced into six in a row wins nothing. Leave yourself the exact five.
What is the difference between standard and freestyle Gomoku?
Under freestyle, any line of five or more wins. Under standard, only exactly five does — an overline of six is nothing, which changes how you build.
Is Gomoku the same as Renju?
Renju is Gomoku with extra restrictions on Black to offset the first-move advantage. Tessera plays standard and freestyle Gomoku; Connect6 solves the same imbalance a different way.
The other games
Connect 4
Drop a disc, claim a column, line up four before they do.
Connect6
Six in a row, two stones a turn — the fair, modern cousin of Gomoku.
Pente
Five in a row — or take five pairs off the board and win that way.
Hex
Join your two sides of the board. No lines, no captures, no draws.
Dots & Boxes
Draw a line, close a box, go again. Everything is decided in the endgame.